Samsung SyncMaster T240 review

While last month's Labs showed just how cheap large monitors have now become, it's still worth looking a little higher up the price scale for genuine quality. If you spend £150 on a 24in display flaws are inevitable, but a little over £200, which is by no means a premium price at this size, will get you something much, much better - like Samsung's SyncMaster T240.

We've all seen the 'touch of colour' design before with its attractive, rose-red tinge. It's one of the few product ranges that genuinely rivals consumer TVs for living room appeal and the T240 is no different. The stand is as stylish as any, and the touch-sensitive power button on the front gets things off to a luxurious start.

Out of the box, though, the Samsung needed a bit of work. The control buttons are tucked out of the way on the right side, which made tweaking the settings a little fiddly, and we had to lower the contrast to prevent lighter tones from washing out. The colours were fine from the start but the backlight bled significantly at the top and bottom of our black test screen; lowering the brightness significantly just about eliminated that problem.

And then we were away, and the clarity and sharpness of the 1,920 x 1,200 panel made our HD test videos look fabulous, the backdrops of Wall-E throwing up the tiniest new details to marvel over. Colours were accurate but a little muted compared to the best we've seen, and blacks never quite seemed rich enough to bring true life to videos and photos.

This can be fixed by enabling the 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, but it comes at a price. Shadows plummet to an inky black, bright lights dazzle and sandy vistas turn to beautiful gold; alas, it's not entirely perfect. In dark outer space scenes it not only dimmed the black but also the bright objects in the foreground - we a lot of time trying to see what was going on and the other half being blinded when the action moved back to daylight.

So it was back to the basic 1,000:1 contrast for us, and to be fair to the T240 it's better in its weak moments than most cheap TFTs manage at their best. And with a choice of HDMI, DVI and D-SUB connections, plus 3.5mm and optical S/PDIF audio outputs for connecting your HDMI source to external speakers, the Samsung is a well specified device too. Two USB ports only add to the appeal.

The only weakness is the stand, which offers nothing in the way of height adjustment and has the tendency to wobble slightly when you adjust it. But that's a minor complaint in an otherwise excellent design, and the panel is good enough to complete a very attractive package. There are plenty of cheaper TFTs available at this size, but we'd definitely pay the extra for the T240's step up in quality.

Author: David Bayon